 Twitter So you have decided as a Housing Association to get online and use twitter to engage with your residents. Fantastic news. But how do you actually do it? How do you find your residents in the digital world? How do you become a community resource online? How do you build followers from your area? This article is inspired by our partners who are getting online right now and starting to use twitter and is designed for any Housing Association that wants to get the most out of twitter and really engage with their residents and the community online Let's look at three areas: 1. Build followers (relevant and in your area) 2. Become valuable to those followers 3. Create conversation 1. Build followers (relevant and in your area) Building a followership You want to build followers in your area that are your residents and key people in the community but how do you do this? The first step to building a follower-ship is to have a bio that is relevant to what you do. So make sure you mention the area you operate in within your bio and make it fun and engaging The second step is to find people from the local area to follow. One of the best ways to do this is to find people who already have a good following in your area and follow their followers. So if you were looking for people in Watford you might look at: Richard Harrington the Local MP for Watford @Richard4Watford who has 3830 followers. His followers are going to be mainly from Watford Or The Watford Observer @Observer_Owl which has11096 followers. It will be mainly people from Watford following this account. You aren't going to get many people from Basingstoke following the Watford Observer! 2. Become valuable to those followers Become Valuable So after step one you are following people and they are following you back. Now you need to become valuable to your new followers and there are many ways you can do this. The key is to share information and ideas that your residents will find useful, interesting or fun. Maybe ask some of your followers what they would like you to share online? This blog posting gives us something to share on twitter with out followers that we hope they find valuable and useful. Here are some Ideas: a. become a source of information on upcoming community events b. share how to information to help your residents c. retweet other great content you find that you think your residents will be interested in d. tell them what is going on with your Housing Association e. Share local job/apprenticeship opportunities The main idea is to share things through your tweeting that are of genuine value to your new followers and residents. So send three tweets a day that add value to your followers life. Remember to have fun too! 3. Create conversation Create conversation So you have followers, you are sharing great content now you have got to create engagement. Twitter is an incredible communication tool, but it is just that; a tool. Just like the phone or email it is a way of talking to people. So to create engagement you need to start talking to people just like you would do with your residents in other settings. You might be thinking what do I talk about? Here are some ideas of what you can talk about:
Start using twitter So if you do these three things:
If you have any questions then tweet us and ask we love to help! @popUPbusiness If you found this article useful then please use the buttons below to pass it on. Speak to you on Twitter very shortly! Alan |
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We are coming to Watford on the 3rd and 4th of August so put the dates in your diary and come along for a life changing, money making fun weekend!
My first business failed because I thought I had to come up with all the ideas myself and see then through! Starting businesses can be a lonely road so what can you do to change that? We know that the real energy comes when you bring people together - the Pop Up Business School was born when Alan and I, over large Starbucks drinks (there wasn't a good indie cafe where we were!!) had great conversations. So these are our 6 nuggets to bring energy of others to your ideas: 1. Find people you trust - the success of anything is built on t-word 2. Get them up to speed - a great briefing so they understand the problem and be crystal clear about what you're trying to achieve with their help 3. Share your opinions - find out how they feel (and you - saying how you feel out loud can help!) - there will be good and bad stuff in relation to your challenge. Be open to tough messages! 4. Use your combined imagination to come up with solutions 5. Build your best ideas up together 6. Make it happen - plans don't fail for lack of planning they fail for lack of doing...so do!!!! S :)
We are delighted to announce that following the success of our two week course in October 2012 we will be back in Sunny Weston-super-Mare on May 16th! We have loved speaking to those who attended the course over the last couple of weeks and have received some very positive feedback - Thank you all for your kind words. A huge thank-you too must go to Alliance Homes for funding the course. Whether you have attended one of our courses before or you are new to the experience - Everybody is welcome, come along and see how you can start making money. What will the day consist of? Alan will be at The Campus from 9:00am so please come and see him - he can't wait to see everyone! Formal sessions will commence at 9:30. In order to squeeze as much into the day as possible we plan to have one hour for lunch - please bring your own food and make use of the time to catch up with everybody. To give you a taster of the day Alan will be covering:
If you have your own laptop that you are able to bring, please let us know; it would be great to help as many people as possible with issues such as creating a website etc. If you are only able to make a certain part of the day that is fine - it will be great to see you! Where? The one day course will take place at The Campus - Highlands Lane. Weston-super-Mare . BS24 7DX. The Campus can be found just off the M5. Junction 21. A ten minute walk from Worle Parkway train station and a No.14 bus run by First Group stops just outside The Campus. Parking is available at The District Centre just across the road and spaces are available for Blue Badge Holders directly outside the Campus. To view a map of The Campus please CLICK HERE The Challenge... Would you like to see Simon as well as Alan? Simon hasn't confirmed he is able to attend the 16th, if you would like to see him; Tweet him on @simonjpaine or @popupbusiness and let's see if we can get him to come!
More from Nicky and Alan next week in the mean time check out Nicky's blog
As soon as the sign up page is ready we will get it up here for you to have a look at. In the mean time if you want to know more tweet us @popbusiness
Coming soon we will be answering your business questions. Tweet or leave your questions below and we will create a video answering them for you. | Who are we?
We are the Pop-Up business school and our mission is to help you make money, start businesses and have fun. We will be popping up all over the country and making a difference!
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